


Make a Wish

by conceptstage



Series: Single Chapter Critical Role [82]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2020-09-01 13:02:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20258521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conceptstage/pseuds/conceptstage
Summary: How the Mighty Nein celebrate their birthdays together.





	Make a Wish

Jester’s birthday was first. She woke Beau up excitedly, shaking her shoulders and singing ‘Happy Birthday to me!’ at the top of her lungs. She had bought herself a fancy new dress with a matching tiara and insisted on wearing it around all morning, only taking it off and putting it away when they left the house to keep it safe. The bartender at the tavern closest to their home in Xorhas tiredly sang a birthday song and gave her a free personal cake that she meticulously cut into six tiny, identical pieces to share with her friends. 

Then it was time for presents and she was wiggling happily in her chair. Caleb handed her a handmade coupon written in his beautiful handwriting that said ‘One Free Waltz’ which Jester cashed in immediately, pulling him out to the dance floor. Nott got her a new ribbon with her name embroidered in it and Jester tied it to her horn where her old ribbon used to be. Caduceus gave her a cup of tea and said “I’m new to the concept of birthday presents, I wasn’t sure what was an appropriate gift” but Jester kissed his cheek and downed the cup with a grateful smile. Fjord gave her an ax that he had bought for her, apparently it turned enemies that she killed with it different colors of the rainbow. Beau handed her a bracelet she had made. It was rough looking and not professionally finished, but there were little wire stick figures to represent the entire Mighty Nein, including Molly and Yasha, with colored rhinestones as the faces. Jester started crying after it was all done and demanded that everyone hug her all at once. No one argued.

Fjord’s birthday was next, a few weeks after Jester’s. He woke up to the smell of food wafting up from downstairs and followed his nose down to the kitchen, watching the others silently from the doorway. Jester was mixing the pancake batter furiously, with batter splashing over the edges. Nott was beside her, yelling angrily everytime splashes of batter hit her face and telling her to slow down or no one else would get to have pancakes because they would only have enough batter for Fjord’s. Beau was yawning and blinking blearily at the pan of bacon that was frying in front of her, complaining loudly about being woken up at ‘ass-o-clock’ in the morning to cook some ‘gaddamn motherfucking’ pancakes. Caleb was hovering next to her, watching over her shoulder and muttering ‘I hope Fjord likes his bacon burnt to a crisp, because that is turning black’, to which she flipped him off. Caduceus was making a second batch of batter to replace what they were losing from Jester’s bowl, humming idly to himself. He noticed Fjord first and gave him a small, welcoming smile but didn’t announce his presence. 

Fjord smiled and leaned tiredly against the doorframe, just watching them as they worked.

Caduceus' birthday was next. In his family, birthdays weren’t a very big deal. They didn’t do presents and they didn’t really acknowledge it beyond a simple congratulations and maybe a kiss. They were out on a job for his birthday, with no time to even say anything to him until evening. Caleb cast the dome and the snow outside quickly gathered knee deep outside, but they were warm and comfortable huddled together. 

“Happy birthday to you,” Jester started quietly. She elbowed Caleb and gestured for him to summon a flame, which he did. He held the small fire in his palm towards Caduceus as the others joined in. Fjord had a surprisingly nice singing voice, low and soft. Nott’s voice was loud and severely off key but Caduceus appreciated it nonetheless. Beau was injured and leaning heavily against Caleb’s back but she mumbled along with the song through her pain. “Blow out the candle!” Jester exclaimed when the song came to an end. “Make a wish!”

Caduceus smiled softly and blew out the flame in Caleb’s palm and the others started to clap. Nott convinced him not to say his wish out loud or it wouldn’t come true, which he didn’t really understand but went along with anyway. In his experience with the members of the Mighty Nein, wishes won't come true whether you talk about them or not, though he didn’t say that out loud. He felt like that would bring down the mood.

They missed Beau’s birthday, but it wasn’t really their fault. 

A random shopkeeper asked her one day how old she was and she answered ‘25’ with an uncomfortable sneer on her face. Caleb frowned and waited until her conversation was over before bringing it up. “You told Wacoh a few months ago that you were 24,” he said, crossing his arms and walking swiftly to keep up with her long strides.

“Yeah, well, now I’m 25.”

“We… We missed your birthday.”

She sighed and stopped walking, stepping out of the road so that they weren’t in the way. Caleb scrambled to stay next to her. “Well, I didn’t exactly tell you about it. Don’t worry about it, man, I don’t give a fuck about my birthday. Don’t tell the others alright? Jester would freak out about it and I really don’t want it to be a big deal.” She almost moved to continue down the road, but then she paused against and rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you. My birthday is… a hard day for me. I don’t like to think about it. Honestly, just being with you guys like normal was all that I wanted. We cool?”

Caleb cleared his throat and nodded shortly. “Ja. Ja, we are cool. I won’t tell.”

She sighed and her shoulders relaxed in relief. “Thanks.”

For Yasha’s birthday they were in Allfield. They walked out into the fields surrounding the town and had a small bonfire and just talked about her. They didn’t know Molly’s birthday, so they talked about him too. There was laughter and tears and they all stumbled back to the inn in the early hours of the morning with smiles on their tired faces.

Nott’s birthday didn’t go as planned. They had hoped to be back in Nicodranous so that she could celebrate with her son and husband, but work slowed them down. They stumbled into the little house that she had bought for her family near the edge of the city long, long after the sun had gone down. It was closer to sun up at this point than it was to sunset. 

There was a chocolate cake getting stale on the table but she found them both asleep, curled up together in Luc’s little bed with her husband nearly falling off the edge because it was definitely too small for them both. Still, she crawled in with them and held them both tightly as close as she could to make them all fit and kissed them both sweetly on the foreheads before drifting off as well. The others fell asleep on the floor of the living room, exhausted and still bleeding a little bit.

For Caleb’s birthday all he asked for was some privacy. He spent the day alone in Zadash, doing some window shopping and, when he found a newly opened bookstore, some actual shopping. He looked nice enough now to get into the Tri Spires without magic or sneaking through the sewers and had a nice meal all alone. When he returned to the inn around sunset Beau had a drink and a friendly grin waiting for him and Fjord gave him a manly pat on the shoulder. Nott gave him a kiss on one cheek and Jester kissed his other cheek with a loud ‘MWAH!’ right in his ear that he couldn’t bring himself to complain about. Caduceus told him to make a wish but there was no candle so Caleb was pretty sure that he didn’t understand the tradition entirely. He closed his eyes and made a wish anyway.


End file.
